My father (now 75) was born and breed in Liverpool, he and his brother used to pester his parent for a trip to the seaside. My grandfather offered to take them to Wigan pier. Excited they got on the train and travelled to Wigan, at this point the recollection gets very dim. Probably because of the shock and disappointment from a 5 year old arriving in a dirty grimy coal town of the late 1930s with no beach in sight (Wigan is 20 mile from the sea). Needless to say he took to dejected young boys home. I understand they never asked to go to the beach again, well at least for a few months and then a little European fall out between countries got in the way.